By Joep Schoof, Chief Operating Officer at Valor Hospitality Partners – Africa
Look at the African hospitality space today, and you’ll see an incredibly vibrant picture. After all, the sector is scaling faster here than in almost any other region globally. According to the latest data from the W Hospitality Group Hotel Chain Development Pipeline report, there are more than 675 new hotels and resorts in the pipeline, catering to a rapidly expanding pool of travellers (the continent saw an eight percent increase in international visitors in 2025).
But beneath these impressive growth numbers lies a structural flaw in how many hotels on the continent run on a day-to-day basis, especially those tied to rigid international brands.
There are significant flaws in the operating models of hospitality operators across the continent, especially those flagged under international brands. Many of these hotels and resorts have a “follow the leader” culture. That means doing what head office says, even if it doesn’t work in a particular context.
That may have been okay in the past, when offering guests a consistent experience was more important than anything else. But today’s guests want experiences that are authentic to the locations they’re visiting. And to offer those experiences operators need to master the art of letting go. More particularly, if they want a real edge, they must empower their general managers (GMs) to act as local entrepreneurs.
Managing processes, not people
That might sound alarming, especially where organisations set high standards and expect staff to meet them everywhere. But “letting go” doesn’t mean a lack of oversight. Instead, it means managing the environment and process, rather than the individual.
It’s a subtle shift, but the results can be significant. Get it right and, rather than an organisation staffed by followers, you’ll end up with a team of contributors who can take their locations and the broader organisation forward.
Consider a practical example: an international brand standard might dictate a rigid, multi-course continental breakfast menu. An autonomous GM on the ground in Cape Town or Nairobi, however, has the freedom to pivot – sourcing fresh, seasonal ingredients from small local farmers within a 10-kilometre radius and adjusting the menu daily based on what’s actually fresh. The brand’s high standards for quality and service remain entirely intact, but the execution becomes distinctly local, supporting the surrounding community and delivering the exact authentic flavour today’s traveller craves.
Where the right structural environment allows GMs to lead with autonomy, there is the opportunity to inject local nuances into the hotel or resort’s offering while maintaining international excellence.
Scaling through trust
It’s something we’ve long understood at Valor, and which underpins our “Whole World of Local” approach. In addition to marrying local expertise and nuance with international experience, it also means adapting international tools to local contexts.
Without the required autonomy, GMs in regions like West Africa and Namibia wouldn’t be able to make the rapid adaptations required to meet guests’ needs. Those needs can shift quickly, especially when there are changes to regional travel regulations or local economic fluctuations. In recent years, movement around the former has largely been positive, meaning that GMs must be empowered to deal with greater visitor numbers.
Sudden shifts in regional travel regulations can trigger an immediate influx of visitors, while macro-economic fluctuations or unexpected supply chain bottlenecks can stall logistics overnight. When a critical shipment is delayed at a port, a GM can’t afford to wait three days for a regional corporate office to approve an alternative local vendor. They need the authority to solve the problem before the guest sits down for dinner.
It’s for that reason that organisations should recognise empowerment as a performance metric, rather than just a management “soft skill”. Forward-thinking hospitality groups need to look at how effectively their GMs are pushing decision-making power right down to the front-line staff, ensuring the entire property can adapt in real time.
The discipline of radical honesty
That empowerment also comes with accountability, however. And that means building a culture of radical honesty. That honesty starts with transparent reporting and team management. Yes, that might sometimes come with hard truths, but people who know exactly where they stand are much more likely to feel empowered than those who are left to second-guess themselves.
But this radical honesty must be allowed in both directions. Staff must feel empowered to tell their GM when something isn’t working, just as the GM must feel empowered to tell their staff and the higher-ups within the organisation.
Not only does it ensure that operational friction is identified earlier, it also leads to better asset management and underwriting outcomes. For investments that rely on long-term stability as much as those in the hospitality sector, that’s vital.
Autonomy and competitive edge in Africa
Ultimately, allowing for local operational specialisation is a major differentiator between the global hospitality brands that succeed in Africa and those that don’t. That’s because empowered GMs do more than just run hotels: they drive the bottom line by being embedded in their communities. Small wonder then that, in the business of tourism, the most valuable asset is an empowered leader on the ground.
